Ernest Miller Hemingway
Государственное
общеобразовательное учреждение гимназия № 11
Реферат
на тему:
Ernest Miller Hemingway
Выполнил:
Самойлов Станислав
Андреевич
Преподаватель:
Тоисеева Ирина
Вадимовна
Санкт-Петербург
2007 г.
A table of contents:
1. The introduction………………………………………………… 2
2. Life of Ernest Hemingway……………………………………... 2
3. Hemingway`s social viewpoint……………………………........ 4
4. Hemingway`s ideas regarding literature and
writers…………… 5
5. Hemingway`s style of writing………………………………….. 6
6. The conclusion………………………………………………….. 7
Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961)
The
introduction
Ernest
Miller Hemingway was one of America`s foremost writers, and a classic of
American and world literature of the 20th century. He influenced the
American short story, and his novels “A Farewell to Arms”, “To Have and Have
Not”, “For Whom the Bells Tolls”, “The Old Man and the Sea” are world known. He
took part in the First World War, Civil War in Spain and in the Second World
War, and fought actively against fascism and war.
Hemingway was
a man of great talent. An American critic, Carlos Baker, in his book “Ernest
Hemingway A Life Story” writes that Hemingway was a perpetual[1]
student, a profound[2]
reader, a brilliant naturalist and a keen observer [3]
of life around him. Hemingway won the hearts of his readers with his stories
and novels and attracted people by his personal qualities ― his honesty
and courage above all. He was much interested in fishing, hunting, boxing and
the national Spanish sport corrida.
LIFE OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born
at eight o'clock in the morning on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In the nearly sixty two years of his life that followed he forged a
literary reputation unsurpassed[4]
in the twentieth century. In doing so, he also created a mythological
hero in himself that captivated[5]
(and at times confounded[6])
not only serious literary critics but the average man as well. In a word,
he was a star.
Born in the family home at 439 North Oak Park
Avenue (now 339 N. Oak Park Avenue), a house built by his widowed[7]
grandfather Ernest Hall, Hemingway was the second of Dr. Clarence and Grace
Hall Hemingway`s six children; he had four sisters and one brother. He was named
after his maternal grandfather Ernest Hall and his great uncle Miller Hall.
Oak Park was a mainly Protestant, upper
middle-class suburb[8]
of Chicago that Hemingway would later refer to as a town of "wide lawns
and narrow minds."[9]
Only ten miles from the big city, Oak Park was really much farther away
philosophically. It was basically a conservative town that tried to isolate
itself from Chicago's liberal seediness[10].
Hemingway was raised with the conservative Midwestern values of strong
religion, hard work, physical fitness and self determination; if one adhered[11]
to these parameters, he was taught, he would be ensured of success in whatever
field he chose.
His father,
a keen sportsman and ethnographer, was a doctor. His democratic views
influenced Ernest greatly. He taught his son first and foremost to be a man,
and to love and understand nature His mother was a successful opera singer.
Ernest took to reading books at an early age. His nurse recalled that she had
been warned not to let him read in bed but that after “I`d tuck him in, he`d
say good night, as sweet as could be, then in the morning I` d find books
stuffed under the mattress, in the pillow-case, everywhere. He read all the
time ― and books far beyond his years”
At school
Ernest was recognized as an exceptionally good football player and boxer.
Ernest took part in all school activities. But he was adventurous and twice he
ran away from home, working at farms as a day-labourer, or as a waiter, or as a
sparring partner for boxers. He was also a good fisherman and was very fond of
hunting. He used to hunt in the woods of northern Michigan. Among his friends
were Indian boys.
Later at
school he began to show a fondness[12]
for literature, started writing articles for two school periodicals, and became
the editor of the school`s weekly paper.
When he left
school, he took a job on the paper Kansas City Star as a cub reporter[13].
On the Star he got his first experience in writing for the press.
In 1918 the United States entered the First World War. Hemingway was rejected for service because of a
bad eye. The following year he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the
American Red Cross and was badly wounded on the Italian front. He was
hospitalized in Milan, where 227 shell fragments were removed from his body in
the course of twelve operations. He was twice decorated by the Italian
Government for his military services.
On returning
to America Hemingway began writing articles for newspapers in Toronto(Canada). In 1921 he went to Europe as a traveling correspondent. Until 1928 he lived mainly
in Paris and was in the centre of European political life all the time.
Hemingway was always in the right place at the right time to get the biggest
news. He covered important conferences (Genoa, Lausanne), interviewed leading
statesmen, wrote on the coming revolution in Spain and followed the
anti-fascist movement. In Paris he made friends with many writers. He toured
many countries: he absorbed[14]
people, places and life like a sponge. He devoted 36 years of his life ( from
1920 to 1956) to journalism and may well be considered one of the most
experienced journalists of the 20th century. He made it his
principle to write the absolute truth. He learned to write in a clear and lucid
[15]
manner. Later he used his news accounts in many short stories and novels. In
1920 he covered the Graeco-Turkish War as a journalist. “I remember”, he said
thirty years later, “coming home from the Near East… absolutely heartbroken at
what was going on and in Paris trying to decide whether I would put my whole
life into trying to do something about it and be a writer.” He decided to
become a writer and quit his job as reporter. This immediately told on him materially.
He described his condition as being “bellyempty[16]”
and “hollow hungry” [17].
In Paris he even caught pigeons in parks to have some food. For a long time he
had no money. His first book “Three Stories and Ten Poems” was given a limited
publication in Paris in 1923. His short-story book “In Our time” was published
in 1924. His first novels on the so-called “lost generation”, “The Sun Also
Rises” and “The Torrents of Spring”, were published in 1926. The year of 1929
was marked by the publishing of his famous novel “A Farewell to Arms”. From
1928 to 1938 the writer lived in Key West, Florida. He traveled a lot in France and Spain, wrote the best book on corrida that had appeared anywhere in the world, “Death in
the Afternoon” (1932). He also took part in the first African safari (big game
hunting), which he later described in the book “Green Hills of Africa” (1935). The short-story book “Winner Take Nothing” was published in 1933. “The
Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (1936) and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
(1936) belong to the most prominent[18]
of his short stories. In 1935 Hemingway published in the New Masses a
pamphlet on the death of war veterans, whom the American Government had sent to
work on reefs in the sea during a hurricane, thus causing their death.
The Civil War
in Spain was a turning-point in the writer`s life. He was eager[19]
to help the republicans and did everything he could. He bought some ambulance
cars and took an active part in the fight against fascism as a correspondent
and writer. Hemingway wrote the film script for the movie “The Spanish Earth”
(1938), in connection with which he said: “…when men fight for the freedom of
their country against a foreign invasion, and when these men are your friends,
some new friends and some of long standing, you know how they were attacked and
how they fought at first unarmed, you learn, watching them live and fight and
die, that there are worse things than war. Cowardice is worse, treachery[20]
is worse, and simple selfishness[21]
is worse.” He raised money for Spain. In June 1937 he made a speech at the
Second Congress of American writers in defense of the Spanish Republic. The experience he got in Spain helped him to write the play “The Fifth Column”
(1938), some short stories (“The Chauffeurs[22]
of Madrid”, “Old Man at the Bridge”, “The Butterfly and the Tank”, “On the
Americans Dead in Spain” and others), the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
(1940), and to complete his novel “To Have and Have Not”.
When
Hemingway learned about the invasion of the Soviet Union by German troops, he
addressed a telegram to our country expressing his support of the heroic
struggle of our people.
For some
months in 1942-1943 he voluntarily patrolled the Cuban coast in his boat Pilar
chasing[23]
submarines in the Caribbean Sea. From 1942 on, he lived much of the time in Cuba. His short novel “The Old an and the Sea” was a tribute[24]
to a simple man ― a Cuban fisherman. It was after writing this book that
he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
While
traveling in Africa in 1954 he had two narrow escapes[25]
in successive air crashes. His health began to deteriorate[26].
The last years of his life he was seriously ill. He died of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961. He was buried at Ketchum. His
house in Cuba was converted into museum by the Revolutionary Government of
Cuba. In 1966 a memorial was erected to his memory with the following words on
it:
Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods[27]
Leaves floating on the trout[28]
streams
And above the hills
The high blue windless skies
…Now
he will be a part of them forever.
P.S.
Hemingway was married four times.
HEMINGWAY`S SOCIAL VIEWPOINT
Hemingway was
a democrat and humanist. All his life he fought against war and fascism and
criticized the so-called “American way of life”. the First World War influenced
him a great deal. He saw the horrors and tragedy suffered by both soldiers and
civilians. In the preface[29]
to a collection of war stories “Men at War” (1942) he wrote about the First
World War that it had been “the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged[30]
butchery that has ever taken place on Earth”. He was convinced that after the
First World War the world was on the way to revolution: “In those days we who
believed in it, looked for it at any time, expected it, hoped for it, ―
for it was the logical thing.” A series of stories on this subject make up the
book “In Our Time” (1924). Hemingway said: “The only way to combat the murder
that is war, is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminals
and swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it so
that an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to be
enslaved into it.” His participation[31]
in the First World War, the Civil War in Spain, the Second World War taught him
to see the real nature of war. In the preface to the novel “A Farewell to
Arms”, published after the Second World War, he wrote: “I believe that all the
people who stand to profit[32]
by a war and who help provoke it should be shot on the first day it starts by
accredited representatives of the loyal citizens of their country who will
fight it. The author of this book would be very glad to take charge[33]
of this shooting if legally delegated by those who will fight…”
He was one of
the first to warn against the fatal danger of fascism. Hemingway`s first
feature-articles on fascism were written at the beginning of the twenties.
Having traced the development of fascism in Italy, he wrote in his article
called “Italy`s Fascists” that first it was an organization of
counter-attackers against the communist demonstrations, then it became a
political party, and now it is a political and military party that is enlisting[34]
the workers of Italy and invading the field of the labour organizations. In his
article “Genoa Conference” he noted that the fascists “were under the tacit[35]
protection of the government, if not its active support”, that “they had a
taste of unpenalized[36]
lawlessness, unpunished murder, and the right to riot[37]
when and where they pleased”. He said that Mussolini was the biggest bluff[38]
in Europe. For Hemingway fascism meant war first of all. “There has been war in
Spain, now for two years,” he wrote in an article “Programme of US Realism”.
“There has been war in China for a year. War is due in Europe by next summer at
the latest.” His prediction was right. He was also fully aware[39]
of the danger that fascism meant for literature: “There is only one form of
government that cannot produce good writers, and that system is fascism. For
fascism is a lie told by bullies[40].
A writer who will not lie cannot live or work under fascism.”
HEMINGWAY`S IDEAS REGARDING
LITERATURE AND WRITERS
Hemingway
didn`t consider himself a theoretician but he made some important contributions[41]
to theory. He was of the opinion that art and literature play an important role
in the world: “A work of art endures[42]
forever.” Hemingway stressed the role of the writer: “Trying to write something
of permanent value is a full-time job even though only a few hours a day are spent
on the actual writing. A writer can be compared to a well[43].
There are as many kinds of wells as there are writers. The important thing is
to have good water in the well and it is better to take a regular amount out
than to pump[44]
the well dry and wait for it to refill.” He paid much attention to a writer`s
qualifications: “First there must be talent, much talent. Talent such as
Kipling had. Then there must be discipline, the discipline of Flaubert.[45]
Then there must be…an absolute conscience[46]
as unchanging as the standard meter in Paris, to prevent faking…” He said that
a writer should be a man of knowledge and experience: “There are some things
which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid
heavily for their acquiring[47].
There are the very simplest things and because it takes a man`s life to know
them the little new that each man gets from life is costly and the only her has
to leave.” Rich experience enabled[48]
him to make the following conclusion: “The hardest thing in the world to do is
to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the
subject: then you have to know how to write…Books should be about the people
you know, that you love and hate, not about the people you study up about. If
you write them truly they will have all the economic implications[49]
a book can hold.”
Hemingway
stressed the importance of truth in fiction[50]:
“A writer`s job is to tell the truth. His standard of fidelity[51]
to the truth should be so high that his experience, should produce a truer
account than anything factual can be.”
Hemingway
made a careful study of both American and European literary and cultural
traditions. He thoroughly studied the works of many writers, among them
Flaubert, Stendhal[52],
Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Maupassant, Dante, Virgil and many
others. Hemingway considered among his “teachers” many painters and composers
as well. The writer said he learned as much from painters about how to write
as from writers, and that “what one learns from composers and from the study of
harmony and counterpoint[53]”
should be obvious[54].
He repeatedly stressed the importance which Russian literature had had for him.
HEMINGWAY`S STYLE OF WRITING
Hemingway`s
aim to write absolute truth induced him to create a new style. He avoided
conventional narration [55]in
his stories. He tried to make readers understand his ideas about nature,
labour, and war by sketching in vivid scenes his own experience in war, and
tell his readers about the peasants and fishermen by presenting real scenes of
hard toil[56].
Leaving out many unnecessary details Hemingway mastered a new short-story form.
Some of these short stories he used for his novels. That`s the way all my
novels got started,” he said.
The language
of Hemingway`s works is of bare[57]
simplicity; it is in keeping with the characters he wanted to portray[58].
It is surprising how he reveals[59]
the inner[60]
world of his personages in short dialogues and colloquial phrases. Plain words
in simple declarative[61]
sentences bring out the sensations of the central characters and at the same
time make the reader participate in the events of the story. “I use the oldest
words in the English language.” Hemingway said.
Hemingway was
the inventor of the so-called “theory of an iceberg”: he wrote that“…if a writer
of prose knows enough about what he is writing about , he may omit things that
he knows, and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a
feeling of those things, as strongly as though the writer has stated them. The
dignity[62]
of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”
The
conclusion
Leo Lania,
Hemingway`s biographer, wrote: “Many serious and important authors have learnt
from him; from his incorruptible objectivity, his exceptional gift of observation;
from his language, as clear as the mountain stream which reveals each single
pebble[63]
on the bottom. He has done more than anybody else to strip American literature
of sentimentality and free American prose from bombast[64]
and artificial pathos. He has shown a complete generation of authors how to
write natural and unliterary dialogue with a rhythm and authenticity[65]
which few other, contemporary novelists have equaled.”
The used material:
1)
“English and American Literature”.
A course of lectures. Л.Н. Утевская. 2004
2)
«Эрнест Хемингуэй.
Биография и творчество». Артуро Паскаль. 2006
3)
The internet: www.lostgeneration.com
[1]
perpetual―бесконечный
[2] profound―глубокий
[3] a keen observer―острый наблюдатель (критик)
[4] unsurpassed—бесподобно
[5] captivated―очарованный
[6] confounded―проклятый
[7] widowed―овдовевший
[8] a suburb―пригород
[9] “wide lawns and narrow minds”―«широкие лужайки
и узкие умы»
[10] a seediness―захудалость
[11] adhered―придерживаемый
[12] a fondness―любовь, нежность
[13]
cub reporter ― a young and inexperienced journalist, a beginner
[14]
to absorb―поглощать
[15] lucid―ясный
[16] belly empty―пустой живот
[17]
“ hollow hungry”― «голодная пустота»
[18]
prominent―видный
[19]
eager―нетерпеливый
[20]
a treachery―предательство
[21] a selfishness―эгоизм
[22]
a chauffeur―шофёр
[23]
to chase―преследовать
[24] a tribute―дань
[25] a narrow escape―спасение по счастливой
случайности
[26] to deteriorate―ухудшаться
[27]
a cottonwood―тополь
[28]
a trout―форель
[29]
a preface―предисловие
[30] mismanaged―неумело проведенная
[31]
a participation―участие
[32]
a profit―прибыль
[33]
a charge―обвинение
[34] to enlist―вербовать
[35] tacit―молчаливый
[36] unpenalized―не оштрафованный
[37]
a riot―бунт
[38]
a bluff―блеф
[39] to aware―знать
[40]
a bully―хулиган
[41]
a contribution―вклад
[42] to endure―выдерживать испытание времени
[43] a well―колодец, родник
[44] a pump―насос
[45] Flaubert Gustave (1821-1880) ― French realist writer,
author of the novel “Madame Bovary”.
[46] a conscience―совесть
[47] an acquiring―приобретение
[48] to enable―позволить
[49] an implication―значение
[50] a fiction―беллетристика
[51] a fidelity ―верность
[52] Stendhal ― pen-name of Henri Beyle (1783-1842), French
novelist..
[53] a counterpoint―контрапункт
[54] obvious―очевидный
[55]
a conventional narration―обычное повествование
[57] bare―голый
[58] to portray―изображать
[59] to reveal―показать
[60] inner―внутренний
[61] declarative―описательный
[62] a dignity―достоинство
[63] a pebble―галька, камешек
[64] a bombast―напыщенность
[65]
an authenticity―подлинность